AG investigates claims North Bergen public works boss used employees for odd jobs on town's dime

Patti Sapone/The Star LedgeThe home of James Wiley, North Bergen superintendent. Employees have accused Wiley of requiring them to string his Christmas lights and clean his barbeque.

NORTH BERGEN — Eight days after raiding North Bergen’s Department of Public Works, the state Attorney General is now focusing on allegations the superintendent used his employees to drain and fill his pool, clean his barbecue, clear snow from his drive and string Christmas lights along the veranda of his imposing three-story home.

All of the work, they say, is on the town’s dime.

Allegations against the superintendent, James Wiley, have been made by several former North Bergen town employees, who say they have come forward to speak with officials from three law enforcement agencies over the last two years. Those meetings have been confirmed by four law enforcement officials familiar with the allegations.

In addition, two of the law enforcement officials confirmed the Attorney General is examining claims Wiley uses his staff as a political strong arm for the local Democratic Municipal Committee, deploying workers to tear down opposition signs, rip up flyers and bully residents and merchants who dare to express opposing views toward the committee.

Five former North Bergen employees have provided similar accounts to the newspaper, describing a public works department ruled by intimidation. The former employees said workers who refuse to follow Wiley’s orders are threatened with the loss of their jobs. At the same time, former workers say Wiley often behaves as a benign father figure to his staff, giving money from his own pocket when they find themselves strapped.

The officials and former employees asked for anonymity, out of concern for disrupting an ongoing investigation and, in the case of the former town workers, from fear of reprisal against them or relatives employed by North Bergen.

The revelations came amid new developments in what now appears to be a fast moving case in this north Hudson County town. One of those developments came from a town official confirmed that Wiley has been subpoenaed by the state.

Last week the attorney general descended on the yard where Wiley and other supervisors work, seizing computer hard drives and other files. The North Bergen official said that records were also removed that day from Wiley’s house and from the Municipal Building office of public works commissioner Frank Gargiulo.

Two days ago, detectives paid another visit to the DPW’s gravelly yard along a busy section of Tonnelle Avenue, this time delivering a fresh spate of subpoenas to "four or five" of Wiley’s workers, the town official said. The official requested anonymity, also not wanting to comment on a continuing investigation.

Doug Bauman/For the Jersey JournalNorth Bergen Department of Public Works superintendent James Wiley, shown in this file photo.

Wiley, a source said, held a meeting with his workers Wednesday, urging them to be truthful with investigators and to not worry about implicating him in their statements.

Phone calls to Wiley’s office over the last two days were redirected to town spokesman Phil Swibinski.

When asked whether the town is doing its own investigation, he said:

"It wouldn’t be appropriate to do an investigation in this case. The Attorney General’s office is handling an investigation and there’s no role for the town in that."

Officials with the three law enforcement agencies that have received allegations about misconduct said investigators are exploring whether Wiley used his staff during the normal work day and during off hours. The officials said investigators are going through town records to determine whether some of the alleged work on Wiley’s house was entered as overtime and charged to the town.

Accounts from law enforcement officials and former workers suggest a nuanced relationship between Wiley and his workers. He is 72 and the hands-on manager for the department, they say, directing traffic at the yard and occasionally even going out on jobs with his workers. While he holds the threat of their jobs over them, he also exchanges jokes, treats them to dinners and is sure to pass on a "happy birthday" to their spouses and children. Records from the New Jersey Treasury Department, as of March 31, 2011, put Wiley’s salary at $117,872.

North Bergen is a 5 1/2-square-mile town laid out on a hilly grid and bordered by Tonnelle Avenue – a thoroughfare congested with strip malls and car-repair shops – and the more exclusive section to the east, where residents enjoy panoramic views of the Hudson. The department workers are responsible for collecting garbage from homes and apartment buildings, driving street-sweeping vehicles and fixing sewers.

The former North Bergen employees said Wiley regularly dispatches supervisors and laborers – armed with a town credit card – to the nearby Home Depot to purchase materials for Wiley’s home. His three-story house, light brown with white molding and trim, stands out on the street, partly because of white columns that frame the second-floor veranda, and because of large a large scripted "W" near the top of house.

Come summer, the former town employees said, Wiley’s workers are summoned to drain and refill Wiley’s pool, neaten the yard and do landscaping around the front driveway. Come cold weather, they winterize Wiley’s hot tub and put up Christmas decorations,

At the same time, the former employees said, sanitation workers routinely veer from their routes during election season to remove lawn signs that proclaim support for rivals of the township’s Democratic Municipal Committee. They take political flyers that have been jammed into doors and mail boxes. On commercial streets, they stop to tell store owners to remove opposition signs from their windows, the former employees said.

A video recording made by a North Bergen resident and posted on YouTube shows a man in a public works vehicle making a stop to remove campaign literature from the door of a house. Another video made by a security camera in a North Bergen grocery store shows a department supervisor confronting a worker and pointing toward the front of the store. A few moments later, the woman is seen carrying a placard toward the back of the store.